Food & Drink. Travel. Est. 2005
The irony. Once famed for its Tits ‘n Snitz, the Newmarket Hotel has a new buzzing addition to its basement, The House of Crabs. The new owners of the venue, The Dixon Group, have taken a once slick but barely visited venue and nailed a few planks to the six degrees design, added some cheap backlit menus and a sun umbrella. And it works.
Takeaway food is big business. Last year the two leading Australian food delivery services Menulog and Eat Now merged. Then they were snapped-up for a mere $855 million by the UK’s Just Eat. In contrast the leading restaurant booking engine Dimmi sold for about $25 million. That’s how big takeaways are versus eating at home where a whole new raft of companies are emerging. Technology is disrupting fast food deliveries. Right now I want to answer the question I’m asked […]
Once upon a time people blogged. And they met up. So here I am eating with Kenny from the west and the blog Consider the Sauce to chew on blogging, social media and the food of Kwan’s Table. Kwan’s is bright and contemporary replacement to Inkr7, a once popular cafe on this corner on Inkerman Street. The food is here is pretty good though not as hot or spiced as you’d find in many Thai restaurants. But the ingredients are […]
As many of you know Attica is the sole Australian restaurant in the world’s top50 list. This is a statement on the sale of the restaurant to Ben Shewry released yesterday: “In an exciting step forward for Melbourne Restaurant Attica, its world renowned and longstanding Executive Chef, Ben Shewry, has acquired the restaurant and the brand effective immediately. The deal will see Shewry have 100% ownership of Attica and oversee all operations at the applauded venue, which lays claim to […]
I distribute a lot of content across the web. Some of it here but increasing on Linked-in, Facebook Groups, my personal Facebook feed and company page etc etc. (It’s another story to write about why blog content now needs to be distributed). I’m aiming to summarise the best of it here for my newsletter subscribers. If you want to read the rest of the story below it is either on Linked-in or Social Media & Wine on Facebook. At the […]
One of the advantages of helping a few dozen companies on their digital marketing and websites is that we see a lot of numbers. We see the main website traffic sources, the dynamics of who are key influencers and the reality behind the effectiveness of just about everything from emails to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And let’s not forget Pinterest, Linked-in and Snapchat. Or physical events. I recently posted that as businesses we need to use our websites effectively as […]
I’m a member of a stimulating Facebook Group called Social Media and Wine. Recently Andrew Hanigan from Derwent Estate Wines asked a question which is relevant to anyone who has an online presence: So has the role of a Winery website changed with the onset of FB, Twitter, Instagram etc? What should it still contain, what is no longer relevant? Is a well maintained/up to date DIY site enough these days or do I still need an expensive platform? Some […]
Livestock are not as efficient as plant based foods, according to a recent report from The Economist. And if we want to be able to feed an extra 1.8 billion people in 2050, we are going to have to think about the future of food product seriously. The report says: “According to the United Nations, livestock uses around 30% of the world’s ice-free landmass and produces 14.5% of all greenhouse-gas emissions. Making meat also requires supplying animals with vast amounts […]
You hate and love them. But review sites are a fact of life and are here to stay. In Melbourne, the biggest of them all is Urbanspoon, which is about to be relaunched in a few weeks as Zomato with local community managers and content creators on the ground. And the team looks to be improving some of Urbanspoon’s shortcomings by ranking trusted reviewers and changing the point scoring system. A history of review sites Yelp! was the first review […]